D7: Bartz Talks The Future of Yahoo

Carol Bartz, the new CEO of Yahoo, spoke at D7 about how she viewed Yahoo as an integrated experience, and how the site is still the most visited site on the Internet (with 76 percent of people in the U.S. using it), and one that gets the most amount of time from users, accounting for about 12 percent of Internet time. She said the company was open to a search deal, though she said it would require "boatloads of money."

Carol Bartz, the new CEO of Yahoo, spoke at D7 about how she viewed Yahoo as an integrated experience, and how the site is still the most visited site on the Internet (with 76 percent of people in the U.S. using it), and one that gets the most amount of time from users, accounting for about 12 percent of Internet time. She said the company was open to a search deal, though she said it would require "boatloads of money."

Conference host Kara Swisher asked her what is Yahoo, a question she thought wasn't answered well at last year's conference. Bartz said it was the place that millions of people come to every day to check into the people and things they are interested in, where people find relevant and contextual information. As an example, she said it had twice the number of mail accounts as anyone else. She said it had a global reach, but local feel. Going forward, she said it should be even more local, with more social features.

A feisty Bartz said she was initially not interested in the Yahoo job, but Yahoo founder Jerry Yang was pushed her. At a dinner in December, he showed her an org chart that looked like a Dilbert cartoon and it became clear it needed more management structure. That led to more discussions, and by January she was appointed CEO. She talked about fixing the "simple stuff" such as reducing silos within the company, such as between the home page and the Finance page. Now cleaner lines of responsibility are leading to more innovation, she said.

Over time, she said, the company had grown quickly, with things such as developing different code bases for different parts of the same properties, and that it needed to be cleaned up a bit. But she said Yahoo drives more traffic to more sites than anyone on the Internet. She said people trust Yahoo, its integration and timeliness, and Yahoo just needs to do better on all of that.

In terms of future directions, she talked about the importance of mobile sites. She said that mail and other sites need to be easier to use, more customizable, more social, etc. It needs a more modern UI and a more modern approach. In response to a question, she also talked about the need for personalization of the home page; for instance, she said she didn't ever want to see anything about Brittney Spears.

On the big question of search and a potential relationship with Microsoft, Bartz said she would be open to a deal, but only if it involves boatloads of money, the right technology and the right data. And she said that would be true for just about any company. She said 20 percent search share, which Yahoo currently has, was "viable," but that Yahoo and Google aren't one-to-one matches, as the companies do different things.

Bartz said the company was likely to both innovate internally and look for potentially acquisitions. Bill Joy told her "there will be innovation and it will be elsewhere."She said the company was interested in social networking, in video technology, or anything that improves the experience for their users. She said she thought we were in the early days of video.She talked about the importance of brand advertising, and said that was something Yahoo did well and could do better. She held up a copy of the Wall Street Journal, pointed out a Gatorade back page ad, and said it would work even better on Yahoo Sports. But she said one issue was making it easier for people to advertise online, because that with the flexibility of online comes complexity.

Bartz said the company needed to do a better job of getting its story out there. She said she didn't need a "number two;" instead she said she had a great team and her job was to keep asking questions. She said she planned to be at Yahoo for at least the length of her four year contact and probably longer.

Michael J. Miller's Forward Thinking Blog: forwardthinking.pcmag.com
Michael J. Miller is chief information officer at Ziff Brothers Investments, a private investment firm. From 1991 to 2005, Miller was editor-in-chief of PC Magazine, responsible for the editorial direction, quality and presentation of the world's largest computer publication.
Until late 2006, Miller was the Chief Content Officer for Ziff Davis Media, responsible for overseeing the editorial positions of Ziff Davis's magazines, websites, and events. As Editorial Director for Ziff Davis Publishing since 1997, Miller took an active role in...
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